My Review of the Black and Decker 15.6V DUSTBUSTER® Hand Vac Model CHV1510

Why a dustbuster review?  As a metalsmith, I find it comes in handy.  Not only do I use it for quick clean ups, I can look in the canister to see if I vacuum up any gemstones by accident.

A dustbuster is, for me, not an entire house vacuum cleaner but rather something for mini vacuuming... spills, a patch of dust bunnies, etc.  I didn't even *care* if my dustbuster held a charge for over a minute.  Trust me, I was finished with whatever I needed to do with it in under 30 seconds. 

But just for the sake of testing (I love research!), I recently started the stopwatch and decided to do continual vacuuming with this until it died. 

Five minutes later, all the crumbs and cat hair were off the floor of two rooms and the thing was still going strong.  I decided to stop there.  There is no earthly reason I need a dustbuster to run for more than five minutes.  [Others may use theirs differently... I'm just telling you that for the reason I got it, it works great.]

My only complaint is that the extension nozzle retracts too easily.  As soon as it touches an object it starts going back into the housing.  IMO, there should be a catch so it stays extended until you purposefully retract it.

Other than that, thumbs up. 

And I leave my dustbuster on the charger 100% of the time except when I'm vacuuming. 

I've had it for about 2-3 years now.

Here is the product on Amazon.  The rating is very bad and had I read those prior to purchasing, I would not have gotten this model.  I'm glad I didn't read those reviews before buying.  It's sad to see so many people having a hard time with it not holding a charge.  Does that mean I got a reverse lemon?

On the other hand, here's a site with a beaming review.

But... on Black and Decker's own website the reviews are terrible.

Kitty Help in the Jewely Making Process

The cats are no longer near my jewelry stuff, but ten years ago was a different story. I was recently sorting through some old photos and was reminded how helpful the fur-babies were.

Here's Ten looking all cute and innocent (notice the awesome ears!).

But not so innocent really, and he'd just finished playing with a necklace and batting half the beads down the heating vent.

Asia is a perfect fit in my bead box... no work until she wakes up.

Can take photos in the mean time.  Jag will help by pulling on the camera strap just as I'm about to press the shutter button.

You know they have to try out every box for size.  Ugh!  It's like me trying to get into jeans... I'll MAKE myself fit, dagnabbit!

 

"No, you may not take the mail just yet."

"Photo props?  I thought you brought me presents!"

Nothing like a warm kiln on a cold winter's day.

"Wait.  These earrings are out of place.  Let me adjust them for you."

"Yes, it really is comfortable with my face in your bead bowl!"

No computer work until kitty wakes up.

Kitty is awake... and ready for modeling job.  Too bad I need a jewelry model rather than a silly hat model.

"Oh, but your bags of jewelry findings feel SO GOOOOOOOOD!"

At the end of the day, it's just SO exhausting tipping over bead trays, chewing on postage envelopes, and completely disrupting the photo sessions.

Got photos to share!  Add to the comments section.

Can Jewelry Go In Water?

Should I come here and update even when I have nothing to say?

I feel I'm letting my friends down... either way.  (Ah guilt.  Isn't it FABULOUS!?)

If I have nothing to say so say nothing, I feel I'm being unfair to those who follow my blog.

If I have nothing to say and yet come in here and babble about nothing, I feel I'm being unfair to those who follow my blog. 

Ha!

I come from a land of black and white.  It's very hard for me to do things part-way.  (Please stop rolling your eyes those of you who know me and know there is an endless supply from me of doing things part-way.)

What I mean is that... and this is probably one of the curses of people who have that "perfectionist" thing goin' on.  Oh, don't get me wrong, those people (of which I am one) aren't perfect.  They just want everything they DO to be perfect.

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, one of the curses of perfectionists is: If I can't do it fully the way it should be done, I don't want to do it at all.

Ugh!

How that translates to blog land is that I get ready to talk to you about something, but maybe I haven't taken the photographs yet... or haven't finished testing something yet... or haven't done enough research yet.  So I can't possibly come in here and do a partial job of showing/telling you anything.  I've got to have it all, and have it under my belt nice and tight, before I can spill the beans.

Phft!

So, in order for me to try to break myself of that habit, I will today tell you of a recent "thing" in my jewelry making world.  (And hopefully I'll come back and give you the conclusion to this thing too.)

I had a rather interesting custom order the other day (but that part doesn't go into this story).  One of the questions that arose was, "Can this jewelry go in water?"

That's a darn good question... with multiple answers.

The piece in question was a bezel set mood stone.  Mood stones are acrylic.  The rest of my piece was sterling silver.

So I figured I'd better experiment.

My normal response to "can jewelry go in water" goes something like this: "Most metal pieces suffer little damage with brief exposure to tap water (showers, etc), but saltwater (the ocean), bleach, and pool chemicals can be harsh to metal so if possible remove jewelry before pool or ocean water exposure and before using bleach."

But that's "metal pieces"... as in sterling silver or gold.  Adding a stone to the equation changes the answer.  Adding a synthetic stone to the equation changes the answer even further.

So I figured I'd better do at least a little testing before coming up with a response.

The only bezel set mood stone I had on hand right then was one set in sterling with a solid backplate AND glue behind the stone (the bezel wire was too short for the stone and this was a piece I'd made for myself... I only use glue when setting stones under the rarest of occasions and only if there's a good reason).

I put my ring into a glass of water for 24 hours.  After that time, the mood stone looked fine... at first.  Then, when I expected to happen happened.  Well, I don't know if that's really what happened, but I expected the glue to react with the water and become something that changed the look of the stone somehow (remember, mood stones are translucent).  Adding to that is the fact that the bezel is closed, so I'm picturing water behind the stone, mixing with glue, and no way to come out or dry up.

So here's what I have a bit after removing the ring from the water...

And several hours later...

So, to determine if it IS in fact the glue (please be the glue, please be the glue... or even just water that will dry up... I'm okay with that), I went ahead and set another mood stone in silver but this time NO glue (and open-back, in case trapped water is the issue).

That's in the water now so you'll have to come back tomorrow and see the results of that test.

I really like the idea of jewelry that isn't high maintenance.  Meaning, my preference is jewelry I can wear while washing my hands, taking a shower, and doing the dishes.  But we'll see where this mood stone thing sits.

I know not all jewelry will be like that and I'm okay with pieces that need a little more care.  I just want to make sure I know the difference.

See you later!

Soldering Tube Bezel Rings

Had a friend over the other day and among other things we worked on tube settings.

Here are two rings I made and since the ring shank I used was really narrow (14 gauge wire), I want to show you the set up I used for soldering.

(BTW, that gorgeous prong set ring was made by my friend Kristi Taylor of Got Sparkles.)

Normally I solder with a third-arm holding the ring shank and then I just put the bezel on top and sweat solder.  (Like for these rings)

That wouldn't work with the tube bezels.  The bezels are too heavy and awkward to sit atop a thin piece of wire without falling.

So I got some greening pins (100% steel pins used in floral arrangements... easy to find on Amazon or at local craft supply stores).

I bent them into shape with pliers.  I bent the legs as shown and I made a dent (cubby hole or holder) in the top.  The legs went into holes in my soldering pad (you can also press them into charcoal soldering blocks).

I then placed the tube upside-down on the soldering pad and it was super easy to align the filed divots of my ring shank with the tube walls.

As I said, the pins are steel, so it's the same as when you use binding wire to hold things.

Everything stays in place during soldering.  It's wonderful!

If you try this out, I'd love to hear about your experience!  Leave me a comment.

The Multi-Tasking Gene or How Weird Our Memories Can Be

I'm kind of proud of myself (it doesn't take much).

Today I peeled and chopped carrots and cleaned and chopped celery and I did with no tv, no kindle, no music even.  Just me, standing there at the kitchen counter, feeling the breeze from the open window, hearing the birds outside, and smelling the quinoa cooking in the pot.

That's probably pretty normal for a lot of you, but not for me.

I have a hard time doing one thing at a time.

There are some exceptions and they usually relate to work.  When I'm torching, etc, I want no distractions.

But I would never do what Monk or Poirot do... prepare a meal and sit at the table all by myself to eat it.  Nope.  I've got to put the tv on while I'm eating AND looking at photos on my phone at the same time.

And for those thinking this is perhaps an effect of the current generation, let me say that one of my most vivid memories of growing up is eating breakfast and reading the cereal box.  I mean everything on that box, interesting or not.  I read the ingredient list and the factoids and the weight.  Breakfast was the only time I could get away with that.

The few times I tried to read a book at the dinner table while eating... ha!  Yeah, no.  My father would have none of that.

I remember reading, many years ago, that there is no such REAL things as multi-tasking.  That our brains can't really do two things and once and what our brains ARE really doing is merely shifting back and forth quite rapidly from one task to another.

That made sense to me.

But what if it's not true?  What if you can allocate different parts of the brains to handle different tasks at the same time?

For example, remember as a kid rubbing your tummy and patting your head? Yes, it took some coordination and even then some people could never get it.  But I think the successful ones were instructing one part of their brain to rub the tummy while another part of their brain handled patting their head.

Not a conscious decision to do both at the same time.  More like one unconscious instruction with an overlying conscious instruction.

I find myself doing this, sort of, when I have something to memorize in a VERY short span of time.  I'll give you an example.

When I'm doing my bills.  I want to transcribe a date, an amount, and a vendor from a website to my datasheet.  If I try to remember all three at once, it rarely works.

Nov 17, $25.60, Amazon Kindle Books

I'll get one or two and then have to flip back to recall the third.

But if I "allocate" one piece of information to a different part of my brain, it seems easier.

For example, my eyes will make "like a photograph" of Nov 17, I'll speak $25.60, then the only part my brain has to remember is "Amazon Kindle Books".

I flip to my datasheet and retrieve each piece of information from its source.  My "eyes" recall the visual image of Nov 17, my lips sound out "$25.50", and my memory was easily able to hold "Amazon Kindle Books".

I've done this for years.

Now, you'd think someone who can do that could remember meeting people, their names, and their faces.

Maybe I just have memory issues that others don't.  Or maybe my memory just works differently than most.

I can tell you where in a book I saw something. Not quite like an eidetic memory (which some scientists don't believe exists anyway), but I can just visually remember what thickness part of the book it was in, which side of the page, and how far up or down on the page it was.

But I can meet someone at a party and forget their name within one minute.

I can't tell you how many times I've been with a group of people and someone starts to introduce me to someone else and that person says, "Oh, we know each other!  We met at so-and-so."  And I'm just standing there like a deer in the headlights going, "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh".  I don't remember them AT ALL.

Maybe that's WHY I have to do those "brain compartmentalizing" tricks when transcribing info.  Maybe I can't retain much.  Ha ha ha!

Our memories are weird things.  I mean, how many times have you been DEAD sure you remember something a certain way, only to be proved completely wrong.  And you're shocked by the revelation because you were SO sure.

That's why witness testimony scares me.  People get things wrong... but they're so sure of what they remember.